MEDITERRANEAN TALES (ACROSS THE WATERS)

The first attempt by these talented German boys to blatantly copy ELP's overall sound and songwriting formula turned out halfway decent. It excels when keyboard player Jürgen Fritz is let loose to quote Mozart on his goofy organ or travel at the speed of sound through ever-changing baroqueish soundscapes, but falls down again whenever anyone is allowed to sing: even if you can get past the thick German accents and stupid lyrics, Hans Pape's voice sounds unsure and uncharismatic while Fritz's voice is just an ugly hoarse grumble. The first two tracks are rather frustrating in this respect, being composed of more or less equal amounts of beautiful intricate symph-prog and weak vocal parts you'll probably want to get over with as quickly as possible (the silly falsetto choir in the "Be Home For Tea" movement from "Across The Waters" is of no help either).

Things pretty much wind down afterwards too, with tracks three and four being little more than aimless, forgettable jams. Fritz is a good keyboard player but he's certainly no Emerson and his improvisation style isn't nearly as interesting to listen to for extended periods of time, especially not on top of the shrill and rather annoying main theme of "E Minor 5/9 Minor/5".

The whole album is perfectly listenable, but better things were most certainly to come for this group.